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1. Definition and Terminology The good (Gk. agathon, Lat. bonum) is that which contributes to the perfection of something or constitutes it. Distinction is made between the absolute good and the relative good. The former involves the actualizing of every innate possibility of perfection (Gk. entelecheia, Lat. bonum honestum). The latter, along the lines of utility (bonum utile) or satisfaction (bonum delectabile), contributes to the fulfillment of another and produces a hierarchy of goods, at the head of which is the supreme good (summum bonum). 2. The Good in the History of…

1. Term “Cartesianism” is the term for the philosophical and scientific teaching of Dutch, French, and German thinkers in the 17th century who adopted and developed the thinking of René Descartes. The main features of Cartesianism were Descartes’s rationalistic method, his axiomatic sum cogitans, his mechanistic explanation of the world, and his metaphysical dualism (see 2.2). 2. René Descartes 2.1. Life Descartes was born into a wealthy aristocratic French family in 1596 at La Haye, Touraine. After a scholastically shaped education at the Jesuit college …

1. In Philosophy 1.1. Definition and Terminology “Conscience” (from Lat. conscientia; see also Lat. synderesis and Gk. syneidēsis) means (1) the faculty of human personality that decides the moral worth of actions, and (2) the making of such a judgment by comparing specific actions to general norms. According to whether these norms are set by the self or by others, conscience is autonomous or authoritarian. According to the verdict, we have a good conscience or a bad conscience. 1.2. Conscience in the History of Philosophy Plato (427–347 b.c.) and Aristotle (384–322 b.c.) di…